In the upper part of the painting is the crucible of alchemical transformation representing the genesis of the ayahuasca vision. Each side are magnificent sylphs, the guardians of the two plants - chacruna and ayahuasca that combine to form the mystic brew - ayahuasca.

The chacruna induces colourful visions, while the ayahuasca liana promotes insight. If you drink pure ayahuasca, that is the liana without chacruna, perhaps some mapacho tobacco, your visions are only in black and white.

Recognized as one of the world’s great visionary artists, Pablo Amaringo was renowned for his intricate, colorful paintings inspired by his shamanic visions. A master communicator of the ayahuasca experience--where snakes, jaguars, subterranean beings, celestial palaces, aliens, and spacecraft all converge--Amaringo’s art presents a doorway to the transcendent worlds of ayahuasca intended for contemplation, meditation, and inspiration.

Pablo Amaringo (1938-2009) trained as a curandero in the Amazon, healing himself and others from the age of ten, but retired in 1977 to become a full-time painter and art teacher at his Usko-Ayar school in Pucullpa, Peru. The author of Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman, his art has been displayed throughout the world.

The new book; The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo, published in April 2011 by Inner Traditions features 48 never before published paintings, by Howard G. Charing and Peter Cloudsley.